


things i wish to tell you

by dleeteuracct



Category: Dunkirk (2017)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 16:12:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11672577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dleeteuracct/pseuds/dleeteuracct
Summary: the body, no, george's body, no, george, is covered in a tarp and carried off on a stretcher, and peter can't bear to look another moment at it - at him.





	things i wish to tell you

**Author's Note:**

> do u ever wonder what ur doing with ur life when this is the most excutement ive had in weeks and im not even sure what its supposed to be

the body, no, george's body, no, george, is covered in a tarp and carried off on a stretcher, and peter can't bear to look another moment at it - at him.

he thinks back to george, laughing and breathing and wholly alive, jumping onto the boat as it set off into war, to his confidence and his smile and the way he had said "i might be useful", and peter had trusted those words but look where that got him,

george offering that shivering shell of a man tea and the mug was knocked from his hands, offering him a place below deck, heading below himself for another cup upon peters request, because he might not have understood the severity of the situation but george was nothing if not kind and forgiving,

the door - he had locked it, but it was only to keep everyone safe, and look where that had gotten him, what he had caused for george, and who was to blame but himself for the way things had turned out,

george, quivering and moaning on the wooden floors, blood flowing freely from a gash on his head, but he was fine he was going to be fine, and his sight was gone but he would be fine, peter was sure, there was no way george couldn't make it through this,

the plane crashing to the sea with no chute, no pilot, and still his father steers the boat onwards, despite what peter warns and he can't help but think, why try to save a man who's already dead?, his traitorous eyes flicking to the cabin below deck, and he thinks he might understand why,

the soldiers, pulled from the depths of the ocean, drenched and covered in oil and sweat and god knows what else, but blessed, alive and well and ready to serve another day, shoving down below deck where george is still laying, and peter is saying be careful but he's already dead he already died, alone and afraid and unseeing, and peter watches as his form is covered by a stranger and he can't say anything else but to be bloody careful,

the man above deck who asks if the boy - george, his name is george, you'd best bloody remember that after what you've done to him - is okay, and peter wants to say he's not, he's fucking not, but as he looks into his father's eyes all he can do is nod his head yes because what good will guilt do besides have george remembered as nothing more than collateral in a war that he had already sacrificed his life for, however indirect that may have been,

and now, he thinks, staring at george's face in the paper, what good has come out of this sacrifice? george is a hero, he knows this without the headline, and now the whole town knows, so peter is happy enough, he supposes, enough at peace that he can stand to look at george's smile and give one of his own back.


End file.
